Interview with Nabin Subba, Nepali filmmaker and Chairperson of the 5th Nepal International Indigenous Film Festival. Nabin talks about the history of the festival and the role and impact of the Indigenous Film Archive on Nepali society. Indigenous filmmakers are now recognized as original creators with a specific voice in Nepal.

Interview with Loonibha Tuladhar, the winner of the Encouragement Award to Indigenous Nepali Film, 2011.Her film Buwegu Maanatuna (The Spinner of Flights) wan for its originality and for raising the bar for emerging Nepali filmmakers

Welcome to the blog we created during the Symposium! We want to keep you updated on what happened in Iqaluit during this exciting meeting. You will find here photos, videos and texts, in Inuktitut and English from the Symposium participants.

Now is the time for you to comment, post your opinions and participate in keeping the dialogue going. Together we can make this and on-going discussion and keep the energy flowing.

Arnait Media Productions is sponsoring this blog thanks to the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Tungasugiti! Welcome!

The women of Arnait have found that building connections to our traditions and, thereby, with the lives of our ancestors, gives shape and vitality to the lives we are leading and to the whole of the world we are sharing. Our inspiration is rooted in the past and blossoms in the present – to shine as an example for those around us. We invite you to discover the things we believe in and partake in the world view that sustains us.

Uvanga will playin Mexico

UVANGA will be at the Festival Internacional de CIne de Guadalajara, Mexico in the Quebec, Guest of Honor selection. The festival takes place from March 21 until 30. The film will be in good company with about 15 other features from Quebec and a number of documentaries.

Uvanga premiers in Montréal and Toronto

Uvanga is competing in the prestigious FOCUS section of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma which features Quebecois and Canadian films that reflect the richness of emerging new cinema.

Uvanga screening in home town Igloolik

Production begins in Igloolik on Arnait's second feature

Principal photography began July 9, 2012 on Uvanga. The film is co-directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu and will be shot entirely on location in Igloolik, Nunavut over the next 25 days.

Before Tomorrow wins Best Canadian First Festure at TIFF 2008

Before Tomorrow premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, September 7th. Other fall screenings include: Reykjavik International Film Festival, Festival du Nouveau Cinéma, imagineNATIVE festival, Pusan International Film Festival and the 33rd Annual American Indian Film Festival.

And in October Arnait Video members will give a workshop at Trent University in Peterborough, connecting with Aboriginal women of Southern Ontario.

Arnait premiers Before Tomorrow in Igloolik and Puvirnituq

Before Tomorrow premiered in Igloolik on February 23rd in 2008 and in Puvirnituq and Kujjuuaq on May 6-7-8. Members of the Arnait Video collective (Susan Avingaq, Madeline Ivalu, Carol Kunnuk et Marie-Hélène Cousineau) presented the film in front of attentive audiences. Props and select costumes from the film were also on display. As with previous films produced by Igloolik Isuma Productions, the film's first audience was the community involved in making the film.

This site is part of an ongoing effort to create links between Inuit media artists in Nunavut and indigenous media groups in Mexico. It is also a reflection about cultural connections more generally. In what ways do cultural exchanges bring about new and innovative creative conversations? What do people learn from them?

An Igloolik-Oaxaca artistic exchange

Our project began as a set of email conversations between people from Arnait Video Productions, an Inuit women’s video collective from Igloolik, Nunavut, and Ojo de Agua, a video activist group in Oaxaca, southwest Mexico. A 12 day tour (in February-March, 2009) was planned to visit different Oaxacan communities. Joining the original Arnait crew of video-artists (Madeleine Ivalu, Susan Avingaq, Marie-Helene Cousineau and Carol Kunnuk) were Marie-Helen’s 8 years-old son Alexandre Apak Cousineau, actor Lucy Tulugaarjuk, anthropologist Nancy Wachowich and her 4 year-old son Hector Lorimer. In Mexico City, the Inuit youth circus, Arctcirq, having just recently completed a performance stint in Veracruz, also joined the tour. Thus, Arctcirq performers Guillaume Saladin, Toby Otak, Salomon Ujurasuk, Jackie Qurnut and Guillaume’s mother, Sylvie Pharand became part of the group.

We all spent three days in Mexico City exploring different sites. Wow, that city is huge! Artcirq performed one night with a Mexican circus troupe. We then travelled to Oaxaca, from where, with Guillermo Monteforte and Clara, members of Ojo de Agua we set off for three villages: Capulalpam de Mendez, Taleo de Castro (both mainly Zapotec) and Tlahuitoltepec (Mixe). Other artists and activists hitched rides with us and joined us in activities along the way. For awile we travelled with a group of Argentinian mining activists and healers. Later on it was a group of Oaxacan circus performers. In each place, a combination of workshops, seminars, cultural performances and screenings were held so that people could meet and get to know each other in different types of spaces. Our hopes were that people could compare cultural experiences, find out who is working on similar things, be aware of who is on the same frequency.

What will come from extending these networks between north and south? We don’t really know. But this has been an effort to set up a network, a conversation that spans periods of time and that bypasses national boundaries. Our hopes is that it will generate more meetings, forums, exchanges between people around the world, comparing challenges that they face, where they draw strength.

What follows are a series of descriptions. We would love to hear your views!!! Please post comments as they come to you.

We would like to acknowledge the support of the Canada Arts Council for this project.

Nunavut Independent Television Network (formerly called Tarriaksuk Video Centre), based in Igloolik, Nunavut, is Canada's first artist-run media centre located in a remote Inuit community. Founded in 1991, NITV's mandate is to encourage and support the creation of artistic, community-based media productions that serve the objectives of self-representation and cultural/linguistic preservation by adapting Inuit oral traditions to modern media technologies. Specifically, NITV aims to expand local access television in Igloolik and link other Nunavut communities through NITV on IsumaTV 3.0, by developing the use of Internet-TV (IPTV) to increase the production and distribution of Inuktitut-language and other Aboriginal programming. NITV is one of the founding members of IsumaTV [www.isuma.tv], a collective multimedia internet platform for Inuit and Aboriginal media worldwide. NITV also is one of the founding partners in Digital Indigenous Democracy, an effort to bring global partners into a working collaboration through 3.0 internet and socio-political networking. As a "Northern Internet Distributor" NITV on IsumaTV is recognized as an "eligible broadcaster" by the Canada Media Fund to trigger CMF financing from the Aboriginal Fund Envelope. More information at info@isuma.tv.

This channel presents Paul Apak's two Expedition Films, Qidtlarssuaq by dogteam from Igloolik to Qanaaq, Greenland; and Umiaq by walrus skin boat from Siberia to Alaska across the Bering Strait. Paul Apak Angilirq (1954-1998) was vice-president and co-founder of Igloolik Isuma Productions in 1990.

Mining has already started to change the look of the towns of Nunavut in inordinate ways largely uncontrolled by the residents of the towns. Some people support and others are strongly opposed to mineral exploitation. Mining creates jobs but takes its toll on traditional visions of and relations to the land. Still, the debate is not really on and public, with few outlets for expressing everybody’s concern and point of view.

We are using video as a tool for investigating our subjects, some of which are: the impact of industrialization and mining on local mythology and legends, how people make choices for their future, the coexistence of tradition and economical development, the power of communities in negociating with mining companies. This work will be shared through the internet, as a video installation and as a film. We hope you will participate in the debate.

We would like to acknowledge the support of Canada Council for the Arts to make this project possible.

Channels

The Inuit Broadcasting Corporation provides a window to the Arctic by producing award-winning television programming by Inuit, for Inuit. Created in the late 1970's, IBC is, indeed, Nunavut’s public producer. IBC does not produce the regular fare of TV sitcoms and talk shows.